30

th

Annual Western Regional Conference Changing School Cultures as Part of Education Reform

Ronnie Detrich Jack States Randy Keyworth

30

th

Annual Western Regional Conference You Believe What???

The Influence of External Contingencies on Individual School Cultures

Randy Keyworth

1978 - 2004

Operated a large non-profit organization in SF Bay Area six spec. ed schools residential programs public school consultation adult programs employment supportive services teacher training campus Implemented a comprehensive performance feedback culture student performance staff performance system performance

“ real world ” challenges

Operating within direct service funding

(no grants, research, university students)

Perpetual growth mode

(services, programs, technology)

Serving extremely

“

high risk

”

kids w/ challenging behaviors

(requiring high treatment integrity implementing sophisticated programs)

High profile

(regulatory oversight, parents, districts, community)

Constant shortage of trained staff

(staff turnover, failure of Universities to train in effective teaching strategies)

Today 1. We have a spectacularly bad track record with Education Reform.

2.

Existing school cultures are often one of the biggest roadblocks to effective change.

3. School cultures are a function of stakeholder

’

s competing learning histories and external contingencies over which we have very little control.

4. There are strategies for building an effective individual school culture in this context / environment

Education Reform ’ s Track Record

2011 NAEP Reading At or above proficiency 4 th Grade = 34% 8 th Grade = 34% 12 th Grade = 38% 2011 NAEP Math At or above proficiency 4 th Grade = 40% 8 th Grade = 35% 12 th Grade = 26% National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)

Education Reform ’ s Track Record Graduation Rate

Education Reform ’ s Track Record average life of an education innovation is 18-48 months (Latham, 1988)

Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration Program (1998)

nearly 6,000 schools implemented more than 700 different CSR Models Implementation Findings 1 in 5 maintained reforms through 2002 1 in 10 maintained reforms through 2004 (American Institute for Research)

Education Reform ’ s Track Record

No Child Left Behind: Five Years to Turnaround Low Performing Schools

Tracked progress of 2,025 low-performing charter & district schools across 10 states (2003-04 TO 2008-09) Thomas B. Fordham Institute, Are Bad Schools Immortal (2010)

Implementation and School Culture evidence-based and effective practices often fail implementation strategies due to ineffective successful implementation requires a social / cultural change process across all levels of an organization changes in adult professional behavior changes in organizational structures and cultures , both formal and informal changes in relationships to consumers, stakeholders, and systems partners

National Implementation Research Network (2005)

A Behavioral View of Culture

“

As a set of contingencies of reinforcement maintained by a group … it has… a continuing existence beyond the lives of members of the group, a changing pattern as practices are added, discarded, or modified… A culture so defined controls the behavior of the members of the group that practice it.

”

B.F. Skinner

A Behavioral View of Culture

…culture reflects a collection of common verbal & overt behaviors that are learned & maintained by a set of similar social & environmental contingencies (i.e., learning history ). Sugai (2011 )

What is a School Culture?

The complex interaction of

formal and informal contingencies

governing the behavior of all stakeholders, embodied in: Stakeholders External Contingencies policy makers parents administrators teachers students teacher preparation school governance union contracts funding Internal Contingencies recruitment & hiring job expectations compensation staff training staff coaching staff feedback policies practices resource allocations data systems feedback systems reporting requirements

Desired Cultural Values Evidence-based

scientific research to practice

Performance feedback

reliable, valid, frequent, used student, staff, organization

Clinical problem solving

data-based decision making

Positive reinforcement

student, staff, organization

Systematic instruction

explicit & deliberate

Teacher Preparation Cultural Alignment: Evidence Based?

Review of 1,206 Teacher Preparation Programs 1.Programs vary in every way imaginable

 selectivity, design, duration, course and fieldwork requirements

2.

Programs are driven by ideology and personal predilection

 relativism is the rule

3.Programs have fundamental disagreements with scientific evidence and data

   science vs. art profession vs. craft anti-science, anti-systematic instruction (post modernism, constructivism, whole language) Levine (2006)

Teacher Preparation Cultural Alignment: Evidence Based?

Historical lack of research on teacher preparation

There is no research that directly assesses what teachers learn and then evaluates that impact on student learning or teacher behavior: pedagogy subject matter Wilson (2001) Wilson (2001) induction field experience Ingersoll (2004), SRI (2004) AERA (2005)

Ongoing disregard of research on teacher preparation

Critical components of teaching reading: phonemic awareness phonics fluency vocabulary comprehension (National Reading Panel report (2000)

Teacher Preparation Cultural Alignment: Evidence Based?

Teacher Preparation Cultural Alignment: Evidence Based?

How Well Do Schools of Education Prepare Teachers

Maintain order & discipline in the classroom

Principals Deans

33% 54% Use student performance assessment techniques 42% 58%

Faculty

47% 60%

Alumni

57% 67%

58% Average Score

(11 items)

40% 56% 54% Prepare graduates to cope with classroom reality 38% Levine (2006)

School Governance Cultural Alignment: Evidence Based?

U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) 535 64 14 quick reviews practice guides created in 2002 intervention reports % have accessed WWC School Districts

42% 34%

School Principals

35% 15%

School Teachers

13% 5%

Governmental Accountability Office (2010)

School Governance Cultural Alignment: Perf. Feedback?

Review of multiple years of teacher evaluations from: Large districts: Smaller Districts: Chicago, Denver, Cincinnati, Akron, Toledo Jonesboro, Pueblo City, Springdale, Rockford   Out of 52,337 teacher evaluations, only 233 were unsatisfactory or improvement needed, 99.6% of all teachers evaluated were satisfactory or above. In the districts that gave “ above satisfactory ” ratings, 92.6% were rated as very good, distinguished, superior, excellent, or outstanding.

New Teacher Project: The Widget Effect (2009)

School Governance Cultural Alignment: Perf. Feedback?

Irrespective of school performance…  in Denver schools that did not make adequate yearly progress (AYP), more than 98 percent of tenured teachers received the highest rating —satisfactory.

 in Chicago 87 Schools met criteria for being identified as “ failing schools ” , 79% of these schools did not issue a single “ unsatisfactory rating ”

New Teacher Project: The Widget Effect (2009)

School Governance Cultural Alignment: Perf. Feedback?

School districts fail to acknowledge or act on differences in teacher performance almost entirely.  Failure to recognize excellence among top performers  Failure to identify and provide support to the broad plurality of hard working teachers who operate in the middle of the performance spectrum  Failure to identify and dismiss consistently poor performers

New Teacher Project: The Widget Effect (2009)

Impact of Learning Histories and External Contingencies on Changing School Cultures Teachers… Teacher Preparation School Governance need to know what to do

lack of evidence- based pedagogy teacher autonomy no systematic pedagogy

need to know how to do it

lack of effective feedback, clinical training lack of effective feedback, support

need to be motivated to do it

ideologies often anti-science, anti-data consequences driven by process not outcomes

Impact on School Culture

staff resistance to an evidence-based performance feedback culture:

         strong expectation that they will receive outstanding evaluations long standing mistrust of the purpose of data educator autonomy, implicit power relationships cynicism about fads, new ideas, education reform resistance to performance feedback resistance to data collection art vs. science desired outcomes take too long to materialize perceived costs exceed perceived benefits

Will it make the boat go faster?

Will it help students learn?

Using Performance Feedback to Overcome Baseline Cultural Obstacles: Calibration, Process, Engagement and Recognition a

“

learner centered

”

culture (calibration)

focus on student learning and educational practices establishing consensus on standards, definitions, goals shifts away from ideologies, philosophies, fads

a culture of

“

inquiry

”

rather than

“

compliance

”

(process)

use of data to answer questions, problem solve use of data-based decision making at all levels of the organization not having all of the answers

Using Performance Feedback to Overcome Baseline Cultural Obstacles: Calibration, Process, Engagement and Recognition a culture of

“

universal participation

”

(engagement)

wide-spread involvement (ownership, pride, participation) collaboration across disciplines giving, receiving, and using feedback data analysis as positive, non-threatening experience

a culture of

“

meritocracy

”

(recognition)

reinforcement for excellent teachers support for middle range performing teachers dismissal of consistently poor performing teachers performance feedback for all staff

Overcoming Baseline Cultural Obstacles: Alignment

Alignment of all organizational cultural components so that contingencies consistently and explicitly support the culture job expectations recruitment & hiring staff induction compensation staff training staff coaching staff feedback policies practices values resource allocations data systems feedback systems reporting requirements

Thank you

Aarons (2005)

Goals:

Using

“

cultural alignment

”

to increase performance feedback

Increase the number of staff using effective performance feedback Definitions: staff share common values about data, accountability, feedback and problem solving staff have technical skills in instruction, data analysis, problem solving Outcomes: staff positions filled by qualified staff staff retention performance feedback systems implemented

Using

“

cultural alignment

”

to increase performance feedback

staff training staff feedback

job expectations recruitment selection hiring

staff evaluation staff reinforcement resource allocations HR policies practices initiatives Strategies X X

X X X X

X X X X X X Process Measures X X

X X X X

X X X X X X Outcome Measures X X

X X X X

X X X X X X

Impact on School Culture

1. Clearly define your culture 2.

3.

Behaviors Expectations 2.

Message 3.

Internal contingencies 4.

Hire the right people 5.

Align all of your policies

Building a Performance Feedback Culture

Performance feedback cultures deliberately shape all cultural contingencies to reinforce the effective use of data in decision making.

 increase reinforcement for the target behaviors  decrease aversive consequences for the target behaviors  decrease reinforcement for competing behaviors  increase aversive consequences for competing behaviors

Effective Performance Feedback Characteristics  Reliable, valid and socially relevant  Frequent  Specific  Focuses on outcomes AND processes  Drives problem solving and decision making  Is transparent  Occurs across ALL levels of the culture  Is mission focused

Why is School Culture Important?

“ Any type of change introduced to schools is often met with resistance and is doomed to failure as a result of the reform being counter to this nebulous, yet all-encompassing facet —school culture.

”

(Hinde 2003)

“ Pit a good worker against a bad system and the system will win most every time.

”

(Geary Rummler)

Organizational Turnaround Research

Review or research on success of organizational turnarounds in for-profit businesses, nonprofit organizations, and governmental agencies:

Success rate = 30%

Successful “ turnaround ” organizations: 1)identify a set of starting leading indicators based on known success factors in the industry 2)zealously monitor those indicators for signs of impending success or failure 3) act on what the indicators reveal

Kowal & Ableidinger (2011)

Teacher Performance Feedback: Frequency Evaluation Requirements of Tenured Teachers in the 50 Largest U.S. School System 2 0 6 4 18 16 14 12 10 8 17 6 7 6 3 11 Once a year Once every two years Once every three years Once every five years Unclear Not Stated Hiring, Assignment, and Transfer in Chicago Public Schools Report from The New Teacher Project July 2007

Characteristics of a Successful Organizational Culture

• implements services with procedural fidelity and desired outcomes (effectiveness) at the consumer level • maintains over time • maintains over generations of practitioners and decision-makers • operates within existing resources (financial, staff, materials) and existing mandates • becomes institutionalized, routine… “ the way we do business ”

National Implementation Research Network (NIRN)